Verbatim

A compilation of recent remarks made at Amherst.

“Teaching looms large at Amherst. Harvard is once again concerned about the state of undergraduate teaching; they will issue a report and make suggestions, you will read about it in the papers, and people will discuss them. But there is not a damn thing Harvard will or can
do about it. It is not in the nature of their institution. We, on the other hand, talk about it and judge it. We value it, and we evaluate it.”

Kim Townsend, Class of 1959 Professor of English
In his Senior Assembly speech
Johnson Chapel, May 6, 2005

“It is the role of the social problem solver that I will be speaking about this evening. Consider this a recruiting pitch, because the world needs your help. Agencies and communities need your help. Individuals struggling to put their lives back together need you. Trust me on
this: many problems that ruin people's health and lives and destroy communities and families are solvable, but the right people are not
yet involved….This story is repeated in so many areas: good people, doing good work for people in need, but without the gift of vision to see that it might be done differently with transformative effects. The challenge is not to enlist more people in social service careers, but
to bring a new quality of thinking to these issues and new levels of imagination and rigor in designing services.”